Juan Pablo Angel delivers for Red Bulls in stoppage time for 2-1 win over Houston Dynamo

As he stepped up to the ball in the fourth minute of stoppage time of a tie game, Red Bulls captain Juan Pablo Angel realized he had the weight of an entire team on his back as he attempted a 35-yard free kick.

After all, he had missed enough chances Wednesday night to give the Red Bulls an easy victory over the Houston Dynamo before 11,462 at Red Bull Arena.

He then sent his shot off the near left post and off the back of goalkeeper Pat Onstad into the net for a dramatic 2-1 victory, on essentially the final play of the match.

"When I stepped up to take the free kick there was so much energy in the arena," Angel said. "This is the one. This is the very last chance, and we've got to get off here winning because we played better than them. It couldn't get any better than this.

"I'm ecstatic. It was a great victory."

And the Red Bulls' (6-5, 18 points) first league victory in more than a month - since their 2-0 triumph at D.C. United May 1. They had dropped four consecutive matches and fallen out of first place in the Eastern Conference. They climbed back into second place Wednesday night.

Houston fell to 5-6-1 (16 points).

"There was that feeling - we missed one, we missed two, we missed three - they can always come back on us," Angel said. "When they scored a goal, you can feel that we were so disappointed."

Red Bulls fans at home did not get an opportunity to see the first half live on MSG Network, which experienced technical difficulties. The game did make it on the air early in the second half. The match will be shown in its entirety on MSG at a time to be determined.

Television viewers did not see Sinisa Ubiparipovic's 15th-minute goal, but were able to witness Brian Ching's 65th-minute equalizer and Angel's heroics.

The latter was set up by Eddie Robinson's foul on second-half sub Conor Chinn. Until then, Angel arguably had endured his longest match of the season, missing several close-range chances.

He admitted he altered his approach on the free kick, which became his sixth goal of the season.

"I wasn't going to hit it there to start with," he said. "As I was going to take the free kick, (Onstad) just did one step to the side. I just changed my mind at the very last second. The ball dipped at the right time. I think it was spectacular, yeah . . . spectacular."

A jubilant Angel raced to the Bulls; bench and jumped into the arms of John Wolyniec.

The Dynamo brought the ball back to the halfway line and kicked off seconds before referee Hilario Grajeda called the game.